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Chaucer
Joined: 20 Oct 2009
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 Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:05 pm Post subject: NPR "kimchee-scented tissues..." |
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Anyone else have students ask their opinion about the NPR book review of "Please take care of Mom"? My students think the reviewer, one Corrigan, is a racist and should be fired, pilloried, etc. Checked the site and, while the woman did pan the book, it doesn't seem offensive, to say nothing of racist. She did mention kimchee, as a signifier of Korean people, but is that racism or just like saying "America, land of apple pie"...
I skirted the issue but I could tell my students were not happy that I'd failed to ride to Korea's rescue and vengeance. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:30 pm Post subject: |
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Might help if you have the right name of the book in question: Please Look After Mom.
And nowhere at all in that review does the term "kimchi-scented tissues" appear. Kimchi is mentioned as part of preparation for a family gathering. That's no different at all than if I were to write about my mother or any of my aunts in my German-American family making potato pancakes in preparation for a family event.
Last edited by CentralCali on Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:37 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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UknowsI
Joined: 16 Apr 2009
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:37 pm Post subject: |
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| CentralCali wrote: |
Might help if you have the right name of the book in question: Please Look After Mom.
And nowhere at all in that review does the term "kimchi-scented tissues" appear. Kimchi is mentioned as part of preparation for a family gathering. That's no different at all than if I were to write about my mother or any of my aunts in my German-American family making potato pancakes in preparation for a family event. |
| Article wrote: |
| Smith will get your book club on its feet and pumping its collective fists in the air, rather than knocking back the wine and reaching for the cheap consolations of kimchee-scented Kleenex fiction. |
I believe that was the part he was referring to.
I feel like I've grown thick skin after moving here, so I hardly find anything offensive any more, this article included. I have no idea if the review is accurate or not, but it didn't budge my offense meter.
Last edited by UknowsI on Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:41 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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RMNC
Joined: 21 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:37 pm Post subject: |
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Making students happy keeps students, that's just #1 if you're in a hagwon. Too bad.
I like how she looks totally different on the cover than in real life. Basically it seems that she panned the book because she pointed out the horribly Confucian retardation of the novel. The paternal guilt message of the book is idiotic to anyone who isn't from Korea. Female empowerment is a joke in Korea. The "kimchi" thing isn't racism, it only seems racist because it's a bad review.
God, I hate it authors and artists make their characters authors or artists. Write about something you are not. |
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Mr. Peabody
Joined: 24 Sep 2010
Location: here
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| Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:39 am Post subject: Re: NPR "kimchee-scented tissues..." |
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| Chaucer wrote: |
| Anyone else have students ask their opinion about the NPR book review of "Please take care of Mom"? |
I'd be thrilled if my uni students asked my opinion about anything! Consider yourself lucky.
| Maureen Corrigan wrote: |
| ...rather than knocking back the wine and reaching for the cheap consolations of kimchee-scented Kleenex fiction. |
| CentralCali wrote: |
| And nowhere at all in that review does the term "kimchi-scented tissues" appear. |
You are correct, but you still fail.  |
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rchristo10
Joined: 14 Jul 2009
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| Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:49 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| I understood I was stranded in a Korean soap opera decked out as serious literary fiction. |
I'm sorry but I couldn't help but lol! puhahaha!
But on another note, saying that Kleenex is scented like kimchee, is clearly inappropriate and burgeoning on racism. The American apple pie analogy above is way off the mark, since "American" would not qualify as a race/ ethnicity and the apple pies are not being used to wipe tears (  ) . Racist or not, I'd have to say that the comment was culturally insensitive. 
So, in my view, yes, "reaching for the cheap consolations of kimchee-scented Kleenex fiction" is a rather harsh, inappropriate comment. But well, I guess it goes with the territory--MAUREEN CORRIGAN is clearly a fist pumping feminist with angry, unempowered breasts!  |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 1:51 am Post subject: |
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| UknowsI wrote: |
| Article wrote: |
| Smith will get your book club on its feet and pumping its collective fists in the air, rather than knocking back the wine and reaching for the cheap consolations of kimchee-scented Kleenex fiction. |
I believe that was the part he was referring to. |
Yep. That's what I get for searching the whole phrase. My apologies, OP.
UknowsI, I'm with you. That review has nothing offensive in it. But I suppose I can see how someone (someone Korean, that is) would see it that way as it's not a gushing and fawning description of the story. I'm reminded of a comment I saw last week by a Korean reviewer about that atrocity D-War: (I'm paraphrasing here) "People want it to succeed in America, not because it's good, but rather because it's Korean." |
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